In the chapter called “Living in the Body,” Levine revisits the importance of sensations in the body. He includes a body scan meditation that prepares us, once again, for leaving the body during the dying process. Several other teachers have focused on awareness of body sensations to deepen meditation practice. Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches a body scan meditation in his MSBR meditation practice. Robert Monroe uses a body scan guided meditation to prepare for out-of-body experiences. And Deepak Chopra explores body sensations in yoga practice to deepen the meditation experience.
During a weekend healing retreat back in the 1990s, Levine talked to us about various aspects of dying and grieving. After talking and meditating together he offered an open microphone for anyone who had a question or wanted to share their story and ask for support. A lot of people, mostly women, spoke about the trauma of physical and sexual abuse during their childhoods. They shared that during those times of abuse they learned to move out of their bodies, to not feel the pain of what was going on. Psychologists call this behavior “dissociation,” and it can be extremely debilitating to the psyche and cause much damage in our lives and relationships. Some of the women said that during our guided meditations they wished they could have an “in the body” experience. This struck me as particularly poignant. I was never abused as a child, thank goodness, but, while listening to the pain that these women felt, I felt pain because of their experiences. I realized how fortunate I was to be able to distinguish between being in my body and out of my body.
The material in this chapter of our book reminds us of the importance of being aware of what is going on in our bodies at all times for physical and emotional health as well as in preparing for dying. Levine states that exploring the field of sensation, i.e., seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling physical sensations in our bodies, helps us to realize that we have a body and it is important. We also become aware that we are more than this body. We are the awareness that inhabits the body/mind, observes it, and explores it.
At The Monroe Institute where I attended week-long retreats to explore consciousness out of body, we spoke, either silently or aloud, the following affirmation. “I am more than my physical body. Because I am more than physical matter, I deeply desire to explore, to experience, to understand, to control, to use those energies and energy systems as might be useful and beneficial to me and to those who follow me. Also, I deeply desire the help and cooperation, the assistance and guidance, of those beings whose spiritual development is equal to or greater than my own.”
These retreats were quite an adventure and I have continued to follow the Monroe Institute’s growth and development. And I Have used the guided meditations on tape, then on CD, and now on MP3 for meditation and healing experiences to this day. All of that is to say that I have spent many years exploring my own consciousness states and experiences of myself as “more that my physical body.”
Recently, in another teaching from Deepak Chopra’s meditation experiences, Chopra pointed to the importance of consciously exploring an awareness of our physical sensations. Chopra states that there are three levels or aspects of life. One level is our physical daily activity. The next level is mental, which includes thoughts, feelings, ideas, and beliefs. And the third level is the refined level of the heart or spirit − love, kindness, compassion, and generosity. The ancient wisdom traditions of India describe these as three different levels of yoga. The word yoga means “union” of body, mind, and spirit. The yogic path unites us in Divine Awareness, Universal Consciousness.
As I became aware of these concepts, I realized that, throughout my adult life, I have been sampling each of these three yogas. I have spent many hours in yoga classes, learning and perfecting postures and poses, ending in the “corpse pose” of deep relaxation and silent meditation. I have studied many texts, listened to many dharma talks, and worked at understanding the concepts and ethics of Buddhism. And I have spent many hours in silent meditation, sitting or lying at home and in meditation retreats, striving to reach a state of “nirvana” or enlightenment, bliss, and joy. These practices have brought me to where I am now as I continue to work with my physical body for healing and wholeness, study texts to understand better what it means to live a moral and ethical life, and meditate daily for mental/emotional and spiritual healing and growth.
Each of these activities, Yoga, the Monroe Institute experiences, and the Chopra meditations, introduced me to and strengthened my understanding of the importance of paying attention to my physical body, physical sensations, including any blocks from the past which contribute to ill-health. All are about “awareness.” Awareness of physical sensations, awareness of mental/emotional consciousness, and awareness of being aware — the spiritual aspect of our lives.
Last night I woke in the middle of the night and was unable to fall back to sleep immediately. After lying awake, gently tossing and turning, trying to meditate on “I am awake” in the hopes of tricking myself into going to sleep, I gave up. I sat up, turned on the light, and read the next chapter of Lewis Richmond’s book, Aging as a Spiritual Practice. In this chapter Richmond discusses Buddhist teachings that focus on Buddha Nature. He reminds us that Buddha did not teach that there is a “God” as such, but he did teach that there are levels of beingness that he called “relative” and “Absolute.” Relative is life in a physical body with its physical, mental, and emotional aspects. Absolute is life beyond the physical that he called Buddha Nature, what we might call spirit or soul. We touch into these two levels of beingness when we meditate, starting on a relative level of breathing and paying attention to sensations, thoughts, and emotions. As our meditation deepens, we move into a realm of Absolute Awareness, the Silence, the Void, Consciousness itself. As we progress in our meditation practice, we learn to “rest in awareness,” and “rest in Awareness.” Awareness leads us to the foundation of all life and beingness, Consciousness itself, the field of all possibilities. So when we use the three yogas to focus on sensations of body, mind, and spirit, we become more and more aware of being aware of Awareness itself. Powerful stuff, I think!
To conclude this blog, I report that I once again recorded the Levine meditation in this chapter so that I could listen to it more easily whenever I want to. The meditation takes us through the body scan—exploring sensations, from head to toe, working on spots that feel “stuck” or unhealed or unclear. Then it reverses the direction and moves us back up through the “conduit” we created by the downward movement along the spine, now moving from the toes to the top of head. Levine reminds us that this is the path followed by the spirit of a dying person. The “spirit” or “soul” leaves the body through the crown at the top of the head. I find this particularly poignant and wonder if you do as well.
Self-inquiry questions:
1. How have you worked with this meditation on physical body sensations? What other methods have you explored in this regard?
2. What experience do you have with “resting in awareness” or Resting in Awareness?” Do you find these phrases helpful to your meditation practice?
3. Where are you now in your journey through the aging process? Understanding and acceptance of the dying process?ocess? Understanding and acceptance of the dying process?
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